1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to an apparatus, system, and method for handling lazy-portrait printed documents (printing across a continuous paper web to produce paired portrait orientated pages or in “lazy-portrait narrow-end to narrow-end” formatting (LPEE)) so as to generate correctly oriented pages that are then processed and grouped into pre-designated document sets with continuously numbered pages. Particularly, to a system and method of processing LPEE formatted pages that permits a desired reorientation of a portion of the lazy-portrait printed documents to facilitate further processing into document sets that have correctly ordered page-sequences, wherein when LPEE head-to-head or bottom-to-bottom paired pages are printed, one half of the printed pairs are physically flipped after printing for generation of a correctly ordered sequential page count in each final assembled document set. More particularly, to a system and method of processing LPEE formatted pages comprising: printing LPEE head-to-head or bottom-to-bottom paired pages, wherein a first half of the printed pairs are printed in 1 to N order on a continuous paper web while the adjacent second half of the printed pairs are printed N to 1 order on the continuous paper web; separating the LPEE printed continuous paper web by a slitter into a first 1 to N printed stream of pages and a second N to 1 printed stream of pages; collecting the two streams of pages into two separate stacks; physically flipping the printed N to 1 order second half; and transferring pages from the top of the first 1 to N printed stack and the top of the now flipped N to 1 printed stack into cutting and collating equipment for generating a correctly sequenced page count for each final assembled document set.
2. Description of Related Art
The subject invention is utilized in connection with document pages that are printed in LPEE formatting. Thus, to fully understand the subject invention, it is deemed worthwhile to stress the difference between existing/traditional “two-up portrait” versus the current and novel subject LPEE (“lazy-portrait”) printing styles and the documents produced by each type of printing scheme. Existing high-speed duplex variable data printing is carried out most frequently with continuous form printers using what is termed a “two-up portrait” format on a continuous web of paper. Two portrait printed sheets are printed side-by-side (both oriented in the same exact direction. This process, the standard in the industry, produces a continuous output of pages where, for example, the first four sheets (eight pages, front and back on four, eventually separate, sheets) appear as shown in FIG. 1—Prior Art. Currently, an advantage of printing in the prior art format is that it is compatible with more existing printers and more existing post-printing equipment for handling the printed sheets. A critical element of the prior art printing method is that to print either black or color markings on both pages, with the headings in color and the body in black, both the black and color-capable printing heads must span the entire width (long-side to long-side of a page) of both the duplexed sheets, WB and WC, respectively (see FIG. 1). Examples of printers that function in this manner are the IBM InfoPrint 4000 and Oce VarioStream 7000. In a typical prior art printing system a continuous stream of traditionally printed sheets (such as the ones shown in FIG. 1) is printed and then moves into a slitter that separates the single steam into two streams of continuous sheets that then enter a cutter and collator for further processing to generate correctly page-sequenced document sets.
For the current subject invention, paper is printed in a lazy-portrait narrow-end to narrow-end (LPEE) format (as seen in FIGS. 2 and 3, for four pages and two pages, respectively), which is a means for more efficient and cost effective printing of variable and form data onto paper oriented in a lazy-portrait orientation. The term “lazy-portrait” (also known in the industry as “rotated landscape” when a printer merely uses a traditional printer head alignment spanning the entire page to print one rotated image) is defined as a portrait oriented page that is generated by printing the page from one wide edge to the other wide edge (side to side) and not from narrow edge or end to narrow edge or end (top to bottom or visa-versa), as is done in every other currently existing printing system.
The critical issue with the subject invention is that when a pair of head-to-head or bottom-to-bottom LPEE pages are printed on a continuous web/stream of paper, the single web/stream of paper with the paired images must then be separated/slitted into two separate streams of paper with one stream somehow being flipped over to correctly orient the final sheets/pages when cut, collated, and stacked into a pre-determined document set (as seen in FIG. 4 for a pair of LPEE printed sheets) with correct sequential page numbering. The current subject invention presents a system and method for accomplishing this sheet flipping process by flipping one entire stream of post-slitted sheets that were printed in N to 1 reverse order before cutting and collating the two stacks. In the subject system, a reverse order printing is utilized for one half of the paired LPEE printed sheets which, upon slitting into two streams of sheets, produces a first 1 to N ordered stack of sheets and a second reverse-order stack of sheets that is then physically flipped so that sheets removed from the flipped stack are now corrected oriented to align with the other normal-order and not flipped stack of sheets.
Again, it is noted that conventional paper handling systems exist that can transport and process paper printed in the existing and traditional two-up portrait style (not the subject paper LPEE orientation). For these traditional systems, the future document sets have pages that are already aligned head to head, and existing finishing, cutting, and inserting equipment readily handles the orientation of the two-up portrait printed paper.
Disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,626,631 is a paper turner for work and turn printing operations. This is a patent on the device that flips a stack of documents, but does not disclose, teach, suggest, imply, or make obvious the subject method for a stack flipping device that is utilized in conjunction with printing and inserting of LPEE printed materials since for the subject LPEE paired sheets only one half of the original web is eventually flipped after it has been printed in reverse order relative to the other half of the LPEE paired sheets on the original web.